Jumping into Portal 2

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The first 30 minutes.

By Charles Onyett

"This is art," says a male voice through an overhead speaker, referring to a small rectangular frame on the far wall in a cramped shoebox of a room. "When you hear the buzzer, stare at the art," the voice commands. With no exit, you've no option but to comply. A metronome-like ticking is audible through the overhead speakers. "You should now feel mentally reinvigorated. If you suspect staring at art has not provided the required intellectual sustenance, reflect briefly on this classical music." The sound of soothing strings is pumped into the room only to be cut off abruptly by a harsh buzzer. You then return to your bed in the Aperture Science Relaxation Center. When you wake up, the world has changed completely. Such are the opening moments of Portal 2.

The original Portal in 2007 was a surprise. Packed in as part of The Orange Box alongside Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Team Fortress 2, it was an unforgettable but brief adventure. You played as Chell, a prisoner in the Aperture Science facility. Though you were given a gun and the perspective was first-person, it was not a shooter. The gun could punch holes in the environment, one for entry and one for exit. You used these portals to move through puzzle challenges monitored by a robot named GLaDOS.

By the end you manage to escape the Aperture Science facility, but only temporarily. In an update to the PC version last year, the ending was adjusted so it fades out just as you're being dragged away, which attempts to explain why you're back in the facility for the sequel. Though the puzzles were unquestionably the focus of the original, what wound up catching on was the story and characters. GLaDOS' lovably transparent murderous intentions became more memorable than the gameplay challenges. We remembered the fiction, the tragedy of the Companion Cube, and how we neglected to willingly assume the party escort submission position. With Portal 2, Valve is building a game that, at least in its opening moments, feels like it's set in a far more detailed world with a greater focus on story.

I suppose that's to be expected. Portal 2 is not wedged into a content pack with other high profile sequels. This time it has to stand on its own as a complete game. According to Valve, the single-player story mode in Portal 2 will be roughly two and a half times as long as Portal. Then there's the all-new co-operative mode, which in total will be about two times longer than the original game. Of course that's entirely relative. If you get stuck, it could take a lot longer. Or if you're a super-human and can speed-run Portal in under 10 minutes, then I really don't know what to tell you. I guess 25 minutes?

This is Wheatley. He is awesome.

So what exactly has changed in the sequel? Valve's added in plenty of toys to help you solve puzzles, including spreadable globs of bouncy goo and jump pads and light bridges and more. But what really stands out is the sound. Trapped in your room at the start, you're awakened long after the shiny and clinical cleanliness of the Aperture Science facility has rusted. It's in the process of being gobbled up by grasses, vines, and trees. It turns out you're a forgotten survivor, and your room is only one of many hanging in a Matrix-like storage facility where other test subjects were placed to await their trials.

No longer is GlaDOS one of the few things you hear. Instead, the facility sprawls before you and throughout its grassy expanse chirp birds over a drone of crickets. Depending on the level of action, music on the soundtrack can range from soothing arrangements of wind instruments to pulsing electronic synths. The prerecorded messages of a male voice follow you throughout the opening simple test chambers. A portal gun is made available very quickly after starting out. Like in the first game, it can initially shoot only one portal, slowly easing you into the mechanics. Veterans will be able to breeze through while newcomers will no doubt appreciate the simple lessons taught early on.

It's not instantly recognizable while playing, but Valve has designed the game so that no characters talk when it comes time to solve a puzzle. This means there'll be as few distractions as possible while you're lining up long-distance jumps and transporting cubes through portals to trigger switches and open doors to the next testing chamber. When the puzzles are over, though, there's a character talking at you almost every step of the way.

In the opening parts that character is Wheatley, a friendly spherical robot voiced by The Office co-writer Stephen Merchant. Merchant's sublime wit meshes perfectly with the franchise's sense of humor, where the characters cope with the absurd frequency of fatal traps and obstacles by projecting a disarmingly cheerful demeanor. He greets you at the game's beginning to say hi, but mostly to guide you out of your room to safety. "You might have a very minor case of serious brain damage," he says after you wake up. "But don't be alarmed. Although if you do feel alarmed, try to hold on to that feeling because that is the proper reaction to being told that you've got brain damage."

The facility has a new look.

The writing and voice acting are undeniably endearing. In a sequence where you come across one of Portal's chatty turrets stuck in a pipe, Wheatley urges you to speed past as though it's an unexpected meeting with an ex, while in the background the turret whimpers "I'm different." The prerecorded male voice greets you at the beginnings of the tutorial test chambers and theorizes about potential disaster states of the world outside Aperture's walls, including a world government helmed by "any manner of animal king." At the outset of an especially deadly test chamber, the male voice is there to promote calm. "To help you remain tranquil in the face of almost certain death, smooth jazz will be deployed in 3...2...1...," at which point smooth jazz, complete with a soloing saxophone, is indeed deployed at a high volume, though moments later it slows and detunes until fading into a crackling hiss.

The goal throughout is simply to escape, though doing so requires you to pass right by GLaDOS's deactivated body, which doesn't stay slumped over for long. What dangers wait for you and Wheatley and whoever else beyond that point remain to be seen. The short, tutorial-style challenges separated by elevators that comprise the first 30 or so minutes of gameplay feel highly reminiscent of the first game, but the connecting story sections leave me hopeful that there's a lot more to this sequel in terms of puzzle complexity and entertaining character interaction.

Has Portal 2 been worth waiting for throughout all the delays? Based on what I've seen, I'd be willing to give Valve all the time it needs.